§ 88. Mr. J. Lewisasked the Minister of Food if he is aware that farmers receive the same price from his Department for their animals for slaughtering whether the hide is affected by warble fly or not, thus creating no inducement to them to adopt anti-warble measures; and what is the annual loss to his Department, in view of the fact that hides are sold to tanneries on grade designations which means that a warbled hide may mean loss to his Department of anything from ½d.to 2¼per lb.
§ Mr. StracheyThe great majority of cattle are purchased by the Ministry of Food on the basis of their live weight and grade as determined by certifying authorities at collecting centres, and we have not found it practicable to make a distinction between the prices paid for cattle which are affected by the warble fly and for those which are not. The prices charged to the tanners for warbled hides are lower than those for clear hides. If the hides of all cattle purchased by the Ministry of Food in 1945 had been entirely free from 207W warbles the additional sum realised on sale would have been in the neighbourhood of£130,000. The prevention of warble fly is entirely a matter for my colleague the Minister of Agriculture, with whom I will gladly discuss the matter further.